The Coming Higher Education Brand Apocalypse

Many schools are making every effort these days to rebrand themselves before (or maybe during?) the coming enrollment apocalypse—and many of these rebrands go well beyond cosmetics—but even these structural reforms seem like too little, if not too late. For many schools, brand identity will require more outside-the-classroom thinking, as a number of trends are pointing towards difficult times ahead. Consider:

• New NACAC rules will contribute to more early decision sweeteners and enrolled transfers, meaning more undergraduate mobility. In addition to the poaching that will occur, 2nd and 3rd year students will be incentivized to transfer to reduce costs/finish before their loans run out, get classes they can't get, or just change the scenery. Your school might one of 2 or 3 your students attend on their way through their education. (If you think you've got rough, imagine the headaches your Giving office will inherit.)
• Rising labor costs are already decreasing tenured faculty, increasing adjuncts. With more online options, popular professors' mobility will increase. As a school's faculty are replaced by highly mobile online adjuncts, how will your school's academic reputation remain unchallenged?
• As costs exceed the ability of students to pay for the residential experience, schools will adapt by offering more online degrees/certificates to stay in business. These degrees will not require residency, so retention will become much more challenging. When students can jump from one online provider to another, their connection to your school will be quickly forgotten.

Other factors that will challenge your brand stickyness:

Campus culture - how do you build and maintain a campus culture without a campus? If you've been selling your experience, and been blessed with a  beautiful campus, what constitutes an experience if the physical location isn't included anymore? The boom in amenities that forced schools to spend lavishly on everything from lazy rivers to concierge services will evaporate when your class shifts from move-in day to log-on day.

Rapid acceleration of segmentation - Small schools will have their students poached by mid-sized schools, which will have their students poached from above by big privates and publics, all due to a flight to scale and stability. Schools with personality and differentiation will be seen as exclusive (expensive) unless they can find a way to slash costs without diluting the campus experience. And schools of all sizes will be increasingly threatened from the ASUs and Amazons as they deliver faster/cheaper/shorter degrees and certificates.

What does this mean for your brand? Less loyalty, weaker communities, loosening bonds between students and schools.

So, get busy

Understanding where the brand will be in 10-20 years starts with knowing that the attributes that were defined and leaned on will need to adapt and change for a world where students expect to experience a school where they are, which won't be in classrooms and residence halls. Right now that means the advertising they see, faculty and staff interactions, website, student portals and LMS, among many other brand touchpoints. Imagine these are the only touchpoints these student have with a school. Are these touchpoints capable of establishing brand loyalty by themselves?

Another way of putting it: many of the services that are delivered in person on your campus will be delivered through screens remotely in the very near future. How will that change the connection your students feel with your brand?

What can be learned from brands that maintain loyalty without place? Apple? Nike? Their loyalists form a community without residence halls, and yet they thrive. They focus on the kind of touchpoints that don't require location. So, superior products, services, people, and storytelling to envelope the customer in a cohesive brand experience.

Enter the Experiential Online School Brand

Some schools that are already online and rapidly moving more functions there might end up where other experiential brands are. Schools might launch a local presence where their online students are, in a retail location. Where will these local storefronts be located? What will their location and appearance say about their brand?

What happens when an established higher ed brand – let's say ASU – opens an Apple store-like presence for their local online students for advising, tech support, financial aid, everything but physical classrooms. Will local high schools students who recognize the brand but never considered applying due to distance and cost suddenly see an ASU degree as a realistic goal?

I think so. Imagine walking through a reopened urban retail mall filled with school storefronts...which schools will be there? Can schools afford not to be?

One more thing...

What will students value more than a great residential experience? What are they willing to trade? Many high school students will no longer expect a 4-6 year experience away at school before starting a career - many will see their education and career merge, with no clean break between degree completion and job offers. Many will try to get a job before graduation, or blend education with their first job - some because they no longer see the distinct phases, some because they can't afford 6 years of undergraduate education before earning a living, so they seek to to start a career as soon as possible. Schools that can stay with a student through this blended time will prosper by building loyalty and value, schools that miss this transition will suffer.